December 30th, the twenty-eighth year of Chengshun, New Year’s Eve.
Jinling City is already filled with a sea of Spring Festival.
In this festive day, even the solemn Dachu Empire Palace is full of the atmosphere of the Spring Festival.
In particular, various buildings in the harem were decorated with couplets and hung with red lanterns.
Many ministers also entered the palace in the morning, preparing to attend the annual Spring Festival state banquet in the front hall.
Since the Funiu Mountain period, Luo Zhixue would hold a Spring Festival state banquet on New Year's Eve to entertain some important officials. Today, the Spring Festival state banquet has evolved into a more formal ceremonial occasion in the Chu Empire.
Whether one can attend the Spring Festival state banquet has become a criterion for measuring a courtier's actual power and status.
According to the usual practice, except for the important ministers and dignitaries who are not in Jinling City for work, vacation, family visit, etc., or who are unable to walk due to physical reasons, other important ministers who are qualified to be in Jinling City will receive a letter of invitation from the royal family. Taking the family members to attend the Spring Festival state banquet.
The ministers went to the front hall to attend the state banquet with Luo Zhixue, while the ministers' family members went to the harem to attend the banquet hosted by the Queen.
The specific candidates who attended mainly included the ministers who attended the meeting, the co-organizing ministers and other important ministers who were on duty in the imperial study room.
The next best are the ministers of various ministries who were unable to enter the imperial study room, the censor of the right capital who was actually in charge of the affairs of the Supervisory Council, and the minister of the left who was responsible for the affairs of the various ministries.
In the military, he is an active-duty general who has not been able to enter the Imperial Study Room, and a lieutenant general who actually acts as an agent for a certain unit.
Director of the Hanlin Academy Secretariat and two deputy directors.
Scientists such as heads of departments at the Royal Institute of Technology and heads of key scientific research institutions.
The above are permanent current personnel.
Secondly, there are dignitaries who are not in current positions, including senior ministers and retired military generals.
As for the nobility, three high-ranking nobility including earl, marquis and duke can also participate.
The above categories of people are basically the regular people who attend the Spring Festival state banquet every year.
In addition, some non-regular personnel will be invited to participate according to the situation, mainly ministers who have made outstanding achievements in the past few years, including frontline soldiers who have made meritorious services, heads of government-run enterprises, scientists who have not yet been able to obtain a count or above, and people who have great influence among the people. And there are positive private entrepreneurs and gentry; prominent examples of ordinary people in some industries, such as workers, ordinary technicians, patrol police, etc.
For these relatively ordinary groups, attending the Spring Festival state banquet is not proof of power, but proof of work performance over the past few years.
Because the number of people attending the state banquet is more prominent and the political significance is huge, the Spring Festival state banquet becomes more and more formal every year.
In the early years, it was actually just a small banquet for models similar to a private banquet, but today, it has become a large-scale banquet with hundreds of participants.
These hundreds of people are still talking about a group of senior men in the front hall, not counting the female family members who went to the harem to attend the Queen's banquet. According to the rules, every courtier who came to attend the meeting could bring one female family member into the palace to participate in the Spring Festival state banquet.
Most of them are wives. Of course, you can also bring your daughter or granddaughter, or even your mother or sister and other immediate relatives. Anyway, there is only one quota. As long as they are direct female relatives, you can bring anyone you want, and the royal family will not care about you. .
A Spring Festival state banquet started in the morning and ended in the afternoon.
As for the evening... it was New Year's Eve dinner time. Luo Zhixue himself would not accompany a group of ministers to eat New Year's Eve dinner. It is estimated that those ministers would not want to work on this special day...
Yes, coming to the Spring Festival state banquet is considered a job for these courtiers.
When the Spring Festival state banquet is over, it means that the work of the year is officially over, and then we enter the five-day Spring Festival holiday.
During the holidays, all government officials, except those on duty, go home to reunite with their families for the New Year. Thanks to the rapid development of steamships and trains in the Dachu Empire, many officials working in other places choose to spend the New Year during the New Year. Take trains, ships and other means of transportation to return to your hometown to celebrate the New Year.
Some officials, because they are far away from home, often save their vacations in advance and use them intensively before the new year so that they can rush home before the new year.
After all, the officials of the Dachu Empire only started their holiday on New Year's Eve... If the distance was a little further, the officials would actually not be able to make it back in one day.
Because they concentrated on taking trains or ships to go home for the New Year, the existing railway and ship transportation networks in the Dachu Empire were full during the Spring Festival every year... The supply of train tickets or ship tickets exceeded the demand.
This also made Luo Zhixue feel a little emotional. After struggling for more than twenty years, the Spring Festival finally appeared in China in the 17th century...
It’s not easy!
Why is the Spring Festival Transport not easy?
Because the premise of Spring Festival travel is not the holiday, nor is it the Chinese people’s hometown sentiment, more emphasis on family values, etc... These are only objective conditions, not the conditions for Spring Festival travel.
A prerequisite for Spring Festival transportation is convenient transportation!
The specific manifestations are the railway network, the shipping network, and of course the passenger carriages as terminal transportation.
There are no railways or ships here, so it’s useless to give you a few days of vacation... It’s only a few days, and you can’t get there by traditional means of transportation.
Only by relying on railways and ships can people travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers in a short time.
With this premise, people can go home and visit during these limited days of vacation.
So, don't think that the Spring Festival Transport is easy... the things behind this thing are not simple at all. The Chu Empire that was able to do this was actually in the middle and late stages of the first industrial revolution.
To put it in simpler terms: without a high-pressure steam engine, you can’t even expect to see the Spring Festival...
However, those who can return to their hometown to celebrate the New Year naturally do not include those important officials of the empire.
Although the year's work is over after the Spring Festival state banquet, the important ministers do not have a holiday... Although nominally they can enjoy a five-day Spring Festival holiday, in fact it is impossible.
Even if it’s the first day of the new year, I have to be busy!
Because on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Luo Zhixue, as the emperor, was going to the Temple of Heaven to offer sacrifices to heaven... This sacrifice to heaven was not a matter for the emperor alone, but a very important event for the empire, so a group of important ministers had to accompany him.
After offering sacrifices to heaven, Luo Zhixue took a vacation by himself...
Theoretically, those important ministers can also arrange rotations and then take turns to rest for a few days, but in fact, these important ministers are also very busy people.
They also need to host some condolences, visits, banquets and other activities for their subordinate departments during the Spring Festival... They are also very busy.
At the same time, the military and political affairs of the Chu Empire will not stop with the arrival of the Spring Festival. Every day, a large number of memorial reports will be sent to Jinling City from other places, including those from the northwest frontier, the Indian Peninsula, and North America. , and those from the mainland hinterland are also indispensable.
These reports were basically issued years ago and have been on the road for several days or even a month or two.
Some of the more important matters, such as military affairs, must be handled immediately, which requires a certain number of people on duty in the imperial study room at all times.
The imperial study of the Dachu Empire was open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
According to regulations, there must be a counselor on duty in the Imperial Study Room at any time.
Therefore, it is actually very tiring to be the Counselor and Co-minister in the Great Chu Empire...because there are only nine Counselor in total, and these nine Counselor are arranged in rotation, and each of them is on duty twelve times at a time. hours, basically every four and a half days.
This is just on duty in the imperial study room. In fact, every counselor is still responsible for a lot of things at hand, and they still have a lot of assigned work waiting for them to do.
If it weren't for the fact that the counselors were too busy, Luo Zhixue wouldn't have set up a co-organizing minister under the counselors... just to share some of the workload with the counselors, so that they wouldn't die from exhaustion!
Luo Zhixue felt that if several ministers were exhausted, outsiders and future generations would not be able to criticize him for treating his ministers harshly!
Then again, Luo Zhixue didn't want these counselors to be so busy. A few years ago, he thought about adding two more counselors to increase the number of counselors from nine to eleven, but As soon as the news was revealed through a certain minister, this minister was criticized by the counselors... What does this mean? It means that the counselors would rather have nine people working in turns than eleven people. !
busy?
What does this busyness mean? It represents power.
If you don't go on duty in the imperial study room, how can you participate in the most core decisions of the empire?
If you are not in charge of a lot of things, how do you ensure your power?
If one of these two items is missing, the Minister of Counselor will not be happy.
People are busy, but they are willing to do it...even very happy.
Luo Zhixue took a look and said, "Well, it's not me who's tired anyway. You like to work around the clock, so just keep doing it."
While the important ministers outside were still busy, Luo Zhixue had officially entered the holiday period after completing the heaven-sacrifice ceremony on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
In the morning, I won't get up at six or seven as usual, but will sleep in until after eight or even nine o'clock.
After getting up, if there is no urgent military affairs or other matters ahead, he will not go to the front hall to deal with government affairs, but will accompany a group of concubines and children in the harem.
The Queen and the many concubines in the harem look forward to spending more time with His Majesty during the Spring Festival throughout the year and enjoy the warmth of the family.
Even at lunch, Luo Zhixue would not eat alone as usual, but would accompany the Queen or other concubines.
After lunch, I took the time to go to the front hall, listen to the briefings of the counselors or co-organizing ministers on duty, and deal with some more urgent matters. It didn't take much time, and it was over in about an hour.
Then continue to return to the harem to live your own little life.
Listen to a little song, watch a dance or something, or simply read a book by yourself and be in a daze...
At night, one or more signs would be turned over depending on the situation to appease the many concubines in the harem.
It was not until the sixth day of the Lunar New Year that Luo Zhixue held his first imperial morning meeting after the beginning of the new year, summoning all the counselors and co-organizing ministers.
Then review some memorials.
But the overall work pace will not be very fast. After all, he is the emperor... not the counselor!
In the early days of the uprising, Luo Zhixue was very busy. He wanted to turn twenty-four hours into forty-eight hours a day. He was either holding meetings, meeting with ministers, or reviewing countless reports all day long.
But after he established the participation system and the Secretariat of the Hanlin Academy, and as the political structure of the Chu Empire gradually matured and improved, and many affairs were organized and followed, the intensity of Luo Zhixue's work also increased. It gradually decreased.
After all, in the early years when the empire was founded, many things, even seemingly small ones, often had a major impact and required Luo Zhixue's personal decision-making.
But now, various rules and regulations are in place, and many matters can be handled according to the rules and regulations. What Luo Zhixue needs to deal with personally is often big or important matters, or matters on which the counselors and ministers do not have unanimous opinions.
Up to now, although Luo Zhixue said it was impossible to truly rest every three days and not deal with government affairs at all, the time he spent dealing with government affairs every day was basically limited to normal working hours.
Otherwise, Luo Zhixue would have been exhausted...
Besides, he is busy dealing with government affairs every day and has no time for personal life or enjoyment. What is the point of working so hard to conquer the world and become emperor?
To die from exhaustion?
So starting from the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, although Luo Zhixue officially handled government affairs, he was actually not very busy. He still had a lot of time to accompany the concubines in the harem.
It was not until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month that Luo Zhixue's work intensity returned to his usual working hours.
And a great court meeting was held on the 15th day of the first lunar month!
Different from the previous dynasties where the great court gatherings were held on the first day of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue had no interest in holding any great court gatherings on the first day of the lunar new year... Anyway, the Spring Festival state banquet, which has similar political significance, falls on the 30th day of the lunar new year. There is no point in having such a big scene in just two days.
Therefore, the great dynasty meeting of the Chu Empire will be on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month!
The Great Court Meeting was not actually an occasion for dealing with government affairs in the Great Chu Empire, but a political etiquette occasion.
On this day, all dignitaries in the capital, ranging from officials of third rank and above, brigadier generals, nobles from baron and above, clans and other dignitaries can participate.
At the same time, there are also foreigners such as monarchs or envoys from vassal countries, foreign monarchs or special persons.
So the number of participants is very large!
Moreover, the whole ceremony was very complicated. The courtiers had to arrive at the entrance of the palace before it was dark, and then, under the guidance and arrangements of officials from the Ministry of Etiquette, they entered the Chengtian Hall one after another.
The Imperial Palace of the Chu Empire was rebuilt on the site of the Nanjing Imperial Palace of the former Ming Dynasty after being elevated, expanded and widened. Its core buildings still retain the traditional style, such as the three main halls.
Chengtian Hall is also the core and most important hall in the Imperial Palace of the Chu Empire. It is located in the center of the central axis of the entire palace and will only be used when major events are held.
Its political role is similar to the Fengtian Hall in the Nanjing Imperial Palace in the pre-Ming Dynasty and the Huangji Hall in the Youzhou Imperial Palace. They are both the most important buildings in the entire palace.
The venue for the Great Court Meeting is Chengtian Hall.
However, the ministers could not actually enter the Chengtian Hall to participate in the court meeting, because there were too many people and the number of ministers that could be accommodated in the hall was limited.
Therefore, during the Great Court Meeting, Luo Zhixue was actually sitting at the gate of Chengtian Hall...
Standing under the eaves were a group of important imperial ministers, and then the other ministers were arranged along the steps, in descending order of rank...
In fact, most of the courtiers could only stand in the square outside!
Therefore, when holding a court meeting, if the weather is good, it will be fine, but if it rains or snows, most of the courtiers will actually suffer.
And this is one of the motivations for many mid-level officials to work hard to climb up.
The purpose is to be able to stand under the eaves of Chengtian Hall to participate in the Great Court Meeting as soon as possible without being exposed to wind and rain.
(End of chapter)
